Xabi-ball: How Xabi Alonso's approach to Tiki-Taka and Gegenpressing has taken the Bundesliga by storm
Top of the Bundesliga table and undefeated in all competitions, Bayer Leverkusen are a very impressive team. This week, Gegenpressing had the opportunity to speak to the man behind that success.
Like most Spanish managers and head coaches, Xabi Alonso isn’t a fan of the term “Tiki-Taka”. The expression itself is believed to have been coined by the late Spanish broadcaster Andrés Montes during the 2006 World Cup, but its cultural inception came from the mouth of former Athletic Bilbao coach Javier Clemente, when he was complaining about the way Spain were passing the ball around their Tunisian opponents without doing a whole lot with it.
To this day, the expression is often used as a critical or derogatory term when describing a team’s style of play in Spanish football. “Well, many times Tiki-Taka refers to defensive possession,” notes Alonso with a sigh and a roll of the eyes, when asked why he doesn’t like to use the term to describe his team. “I have played in it, but we have other things.” Which is certainly understandable. While the Spaniard’s Bayer Leverkusen side certainly echo back to the tactics and formations of Alonso’s playing career, they also offer something different entirely. And there’s little doubt that they have cut through the Bundesliga like a hot knife through butter this season.
Indeed, Leverkusen have become masters in the subtle art of precision passing this season. Alonso’s side now average 621 passes per game, which is not only more than any other side in the Bundesliga but considerably more than RB Leipzig (485 per game) or Borussia Dortmund’s (475) averages. And when we take a look at which players have completed the most passes in the league this season, Leverkusen can lay claim to no less than four of the top 10 players, with central defender Jonathan Tah sitting in first place. However, there’s a lot more to Leverkusen’s success than simply passing the ball.
“There are some parts that I could say are similar,” noted Alonso when asked about the similarities between his team’s style and what most football fans would (affectionately) refer to as tiki-taka'. “For example, against Union [Berlin] the counter pressing was even better than expected,” noted Alonso, in reference to Sunday’s 4-0 win over Union Berlin. “But the positioning, the tempo, the construction of our game - we like to do that differently. We try to be patient, we don’t like to be too crazy or hectic.”
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